8/20/2012

Populazzi by Elise Allen GCC Interview

Welcome to the Girlfriend's Cyber Circuit, a web ring of YA authors dedicated to bringing you the latest news about YA releases and interviews with the fabulous people responsible for them.

I'm honored to be a new member, and look forward to hosting all the members here. Today I welcome Elise Allen, author of Populazzi to the blog! (Elise is doing a HUGE giveaway on her blog, so make sure to go here to check it out!)

POPULAZZI

"WHAT WOULD YOU DO if you had the chance to erase your past and reinvent yourself as the person you’ve always wanted to be? Would you grab it? Would you stick with it, no matter what the consequences?

Cara Leonard always wished she could be one of those girls: confident, self-possessed, and never at a loss for the perfect thing to say. One of the Populazzi.

It always seemed impossible… but now could be her chance.

When Cara moves to a new school just before junior year, her best friend urges her to seize the opportunity and change her life… with the help of The Ladder. Its rungs are relationships, and if Cara transforms herself into the perfect girlfriend for guys higher and higher on the Popularity Tower, she can reach the ultimate goal: Supreme Populazzi, the most popular girl in school.

The Ladder seems like a lighthearted social experiment — a straight climb up — but it quickly becomes gnarled and twisted. And when everything goes wrong, only the most audacious act Cara can think of has a chance of setting things even a little bit right."

ELISE ALLEN

After starting her career in television, ELISE ALLEN has emerged as a vibrant new voice in teen fiction. She is the co-author of Hilary Duff's New York Times Bestseller Elixir,as well as its sequels, Devoted and True. She received an Emmy nomination for her work on the PBS show Dinosaur Train, and fulfilled a lifelong dream when she wrote for the Muppets. She lives in Los Angeles, where she indulges her inexplicable desire to run marathons. Visit her at www.eliseallen.com, or on Twitter @EliseLAllen.

If you could have one wish that would allow you to do something you've always wanted to do (and Ryan Gosling isn't an appropriate answer), what would it be?

Is Hugh Jackman a more appropriate answer? Just wondering. I mean, it would have to be Hugh Jackman as Wolverine, but still…

If not, I’d wish to go on one of those multisport tours. Have you seen these? Each day you go out and spend all day biking, or hiking, or horseback riding, or canoeing… you get the idea. That’s how you get from place to place, then each evening you bed down in a fabulous inn. A friend of mine did that in Costa Rica on horseback. I’m not sure where I’d want to do the tour – maybe Australia, or the south of France, or Tuscany... crap, now I’m going to spend the next several hours procrastinating work while I drool over the Backroads website.

2. Why?

Okay, back from my sojourn on the website. I’d want to do that because I always feel better when I’m outside and physically active, and I love seeing new places. I recently went on a trip through Europe, and I don’t have the words for how overwhelmingly wonderful it was to travel from Edinburgh to Florence, stopping in several cities along the way, soaking in each town’s vibe and history.

The key to this hypothetical dream trip of mine would be forcing myself to journal along the way. I swore I’d do that on the European jaunt, and I didn’t at all. It pains me because even though I felt like I was living in the moment and taking everything in, journaling is the perfect way to seal those memories… and I missed that opportunity.

I feel like I’m ending on such a morose note! Ah, well – I’ll consider it a writer’s cautionary tale. A public service announcement in favor of journaling.

Thanks so much for having me on the blog, Myra! Now I have to get back to that Backroads website…